[Tamaroa]

WOW!!!!

As a deck ape on the Tam, I served as the hotshell man of a 3"/50. Each shell (fixed ammo) weighed about 33 pounds and I'd guess it was about 30 inches long.

Blue I'm guessing that that thing was probably designed something like ours. the 3 inchers were recoiless rifles. In other words, when the shell was fired, the breech block dropped emitting a huge sheet of flame out the rear of the barrel off setting the explosive force that propelled the projectile. We had no springs, or hydraulics. We had nothing to stop a recoil. The gun was just bolted to the deck and the breech block dropping was enough to counteract the force, hence no recoil.

Somebody jump in here if i'm wrong, please.

Bill